This deep sea fish uses its fins to walk around

Unusual species caught in the act by NOAA's Okeanos Explorer.

The pink frogmouth, Chaunax pictus, is called a sea toad, and it's no wonder why when you take a look at the large-mouthed fish strolling along the rock; tere's an uncanny resemblance. The deep sea fish lives on continental shelves in tropical and temperate waters. This particular individual was spotted by NOAA's Okeanos Explorer during an expedition near Puerto Rico. Check out the way it uses its fins to "walk" across the shelf wall.

The pink frogmouth isn't the only species of fish to move in such a way. Species of batfish, such as the red-lipped batfish, also use their fins in a similar way to "walk" along the ocean floor. The flying gurnard has also been observed to walk along the sandy seabed.

Of course, there are also fish species that walk not just in water but also on land.

The walking catfish is one such example, but this fish moves in more of a wriggling motion from one pond to another. The mudskipper on the other hand is famous for spending days on end out of the water, moving from one place to another in a series of skips and even climbing up mangroves.

Some species of "walking" fish may even hold clues as to how the first animals moved from the sea onto land far back in the history of life on planet Earth. A cavefish in Thailand called Cryptotora thamicola is one such species. It has been observed to walk and climb up waterfalls not in the wriggling, skipping gait of some other fish but in a manner similar to four-legged critters like salamanders.

Researchers studying the fish note that the species has a unique morphology and a gait unlike any other known fish species, and one that resembles that of tetrapods, the four-legged vertebrates that walk around on land.